Op-ed: Bonusgate: Political corruption of a different kind

By NULLJuly 30, 2008 at 3:00 AM
- Last modified: February 14, 2011 at 11:47 AM

It has all the elements of a sensational fiction thriller -an allusive title, "Bonusgate;" cold cash in the form of illicit bonuses handedout to witting and unwitting accomplices; titillating sexual encounters; dirtsurreptitiously uncovered and used on political enemies - all mixed well with acast of unlikely characters and comedic hijinks worthy of Hollywood's finest.

It has all the elements of a sensational fiction thriller -
an allusive title, "Bonusgate;" cold cash in the form of illicit bonuses handed
out to witting and unwitting accomplices; titillating sexual encounters; dirt
surreptitiously uncovered and used on political enemies - all mixed well with a
cast of unlikely characters and comedic hijinks worthy of Hollywood's finest.

Are we describing the latest crime novel published just in
time for summer reading on hot, crowded beaches? Alas, no! Hot reading this may
be, but fictional it is not. It is all too real. And the real-world crime
alleged at its core has so far led to the indictments of 12 Pennsylvania House
Democratic representatives and staffers.

But if Bonusgate has grabbed our attention, it isn't yet
clear just what all the attention is about. What exactly is Bonusgate, what are
its implications, and what might it foreshadow for state politics?

So far, most interest has focused on two allegations: that
illicit bonuses using public funds were paid to some House Democratic Caucus
employees for political campaigning and that extensive campaign work was done
on state time by some caucus employees. But these charges capture only part of
the matter. The scope of alleged wrongdoing is much broader. Indeed, according
to two grand jury presentments, the political practices carried out in the
caucus over the past few years represent a "new campaign scheme" funded by
public dollars.

It is alleged that the architects of Bonusgate built and
operated a fully functioning campaign organization embedded within the House
Democratic Caucus. At its high point,
it included extensive fieldwork, strategic and tactical planning, opposition
research, fundraising, and the use of e-mail and computer databases. All or
much of this extensive campaign apparatus was run on public property by public
employees using public equipment and other resources.

The system was apparently so extensive that 458 employees
"volunteered" to participate, many understanding that doing so was compulsory
if they wished to continue their careers. In one legislative race, a stunning
177 staffers became involved at some point in the campaign.

Nor was the operation limited to the legislative sphere of
state politics. This sophisticated political machine pasted onto the very
fabric of the legislative process had implications far beyond legislative
elections. Its tentacles spread widely - extending to a U.S. Senate campaign, a
state gubernatorial election and even a presidential race.

It successfully kept Independent candidate Carl Romanelli
off the U.S. Senate ballot in 2006. Then the very same political operation, it
is alleged, was employed against gubernatorial candidates Lynn Swann and Bill
Scranton in 2006. Earlier, it helped successfully challenge the state
presidential nomination petition of Ralph Nader in 2004, thus helping John
Kerry carry the state.

None of this is penny-ante politics. Indeed, the scope of it
is breathtaking. The vast political machine developed probably rivaled any
legitimate political organization created at the county or state level in the
past 40 years. And for many years, it was maintained in secrecy because the state's
own Right to Know Law did not apply to the Legislature.

All of this raises many disturbing questions. Three are
particularly compelling:

Why, after an interval of almost three decades, has major
public corruption again reared its head in Pennsylvania? In the 1970s, the U.S. Justice
Department declared that Pennsylvania
was the most corrupt among the 50 states. But not since that time has
widespread public corruption been a problem in Pennsylvania. Does Bonusgate signal a
regression to that earlier era? Is this a return to the bad old days?

And is Bonusgate really systemic? Is it a virulent political
virus spreading through the system and infecting the vital organs of state
government, or is Bonusgate instead the tawdry and venal idiosyncratic acts of
a few who are neither representative nor numerous among the political class?
How widespread is this thing?

And where do the solutions lie to prevent future Bonusgates?
Are they to be found in the institutional reforms that post-2005 pay raise
reformers have advocated - like term limits, stronger lobbyist regulation,
campaign finance reform, a ban on gifts to legislators and their staffs, or
even a constitutional convention?

Answers to all these questions will come. But it is clear
that even institutional reforms are not silver bullets that can end by
themselves political corruption and misbehavior in the state. If we wish to do
that, we must confront the toxic effects in state politics of the demand for
campaign money.

In fact, one cannot long look into this mess without
realizing that the pursuit of campaign resources - cash and its equivalent -
has led to Bonusgate. More than anything else, the whole sad saga illustrates
the unremitting demand for campaign money that dominates modern American
politics.

In truth, this central role of political money in producing
corruption can scarcely be exaggerated. To win elections today, prodigious
amounts of campaign resources must be raised and spent. This unrelenting,
dogged and methodical pursuit of cash has been termed the "permanent campaign,"
and its corrupting influence daily perverts the nation's politics. Bonusgate is
a symptom of that problem.

But Bonusgate markedly differs from past corruption in Pennsylvania. Corrupt
politicians throughout state history have found many ways to steal and have
stolen for many reasons. But historically, personal enrichment and financial
gain were common motivations for corrupt behavior. Since vigorous parties and
abundant patronage provided the campaign resources necessary to run campaigns,
crooked politicians of earlier eras were free to steal for themselves, and many
did.

And the accused Bonusgate malefactors are different, too.
Boiled down to its elements, they are accused of creating within state
government a campaign organization that performed very similar campaign
functions to those that parties and patronage performed in the past.

Unlike earlier corrupt politicians, these modern-day
villains are mostly stealing to gain power and win elections. They live in an
era in which the parties are moribund, the candidate-centered campaign
prevails, and the demand for campaign cash grows inexorably even while its
traditional sources decline.

It is the pursuit of these campaign resources that drive the
behavior of today's corrupt politician - and that is different from past
personal, enrichment-oriented corruption. The modes of stealing may be similar,
but the motives are very different. Unless we understand this, we can't hope to
stop it from happening again.

•

G. Terry Madonna is professor of public affairs at Franklin & Marshall
College, and Michael
Young is managing partner of Michael Young Strategic Research.